Karaoke Forums

So don't we all Perry,  So don't we all !   Some of us just settle for acheiving our one year Star however... As close as we will ever get

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Yeah, quit hijacking this thread!!!  

I wouldn't literally DIE if I had no karaoke, but pretty darn close.
I'm pretty much with Susan, as long as I had music, and could sing- I could live without it. But I sure don't want to try.

I've made friends through karaoke that I never would have had otherwise. Only one that I actually see OUTSIDE of karaoke though, cause he has a mutual interest in music in general, and we play music together and such.

Karaoke has WAY cut down on my shyness in public. I'm still nervous when I first get up to the mic each night (but only for the first song or two)..... and I still have trouble looking out into a crowd while singing. But I used to get god awful anxiety and dang near make myself sick being nervous/anxious about my name being called. That's gotten way better, but partly I guess because I know the crowd really well where I go- that helps too.

As for karaoke enhancing my appreciation of music in general? It sure has enhanced my appreciation of OTHER GENRES........besides country & bluegrass music. Especially on this site, I've heard so much music I would NEVER have heard otherwise, because I would never have bought those cd's or listened to those types of radio stations.  I have even tried more styles myself since karaoke came along.

No, I don't need to be a DJ/KJ to get my fix......... I just need those DJ/KJ's to GIVE ME THE MIC so I can get my fix.  :wink:

Okay, I've answered enough of your 20 questions.........hand me my sign, cause I think I qualify, LoL.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Perry,  Do you own a Karaoke player, any equipment of your own ?  Might be worth spending a couple hundred bucks (assuming you can somehow scrounge that amount up), and purchase your own stuff...I have a mixer I'd be willing to sell you quite affordably !  It's a generic make however.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Wow Charmin, we have alot in common, but that's dangerous.

Karaoke has WAY cut down on my shyness in public. I'm still nervous when I first get up to the mic each night (but only for the first song or two)..... and I still have trouble looking out into a crowd while singing. But I used to get god awful anxiety and dang near make myself sick being nervous/anxious about my name being called.

Unfortunately, yes, I still have stage fright. I remember once, I thought I was going to pass out!! My heart was pounding violently, I couldn't breathe, face heated up, and this started before the kj called my name because she said.....after so and so, we'll have Perry up here. So the anticipation of being called next really worked me over. No amount of beer could've cured me that time around.

Perry,  Do you own a Karaoke player, any equipment of your own ?  Might be worth spending a couple hundred bucks (assuming you can somehow scrounge that amount up), and purchase your own stuff...I have a mixer I'd be willing to sell you quite affordably !  It's a generic make however.

Hey Steve, yes I do have a small karaoke player, one of those all-in-one things that I can connect to my stereo and tv to make louder, then I can record to cassette from it. So far, I managed to make about 30 mins. worth of recording several songs, but that's not the correct way to record to submit here. I still can't get any kind of recording software to work properly with my computer, or I'd have already submitted what I have just for the heck of it.
I have been in a local karaoke music store and seen some of the stuff like what Charmin just bought, it was pretty pricey, but reasonably priced for a professional. I'm not sure if that equipment records to cd's or what though. That would be cool.
As far as mixing and all of the technical stuff, I'd need a crash course just to get started.

Oh, how about that new just as ugly avatar of mine?
The other pic was a few years old, but I haven't changed much, just more wrinkles.

Some never get over this.  I think they just get used to having it..(not sure how much sense this makes, but it does to me). I got used to living with, and having excessive level's of anxiety as someone who both acted, and toured for years..
   
I played some HUGE venues, stadiums, Performing Art's Centers, and was petrified, yet most are...even after numerous performances in like settings. Something a little strange about how phobia's affected me as a musician... When I was VERY young I think my stage fright was probably around what most would consider to be normal anticipatory anxiety levels before the performance, but when I started performing, I became so focused that the event (bringing me into the here and now) jammed out some of the awareness of "audience out there"...I delt with Piano concerts on stage from a very young age, and when I started Violin in 3rd grade, learned to cope with the recital's, and school performances with no probs... All until around when I was 10... At ten stuff changed. I was seated somewhat front stage left during a recital in front of perhaps a school audience of about 300, and the conductor had (what I later learned to be) a Grand Mal Seizure....I FREAKED.... Yet obviously endured the rest of the concert which resumed with the assistant music teacher conducting in his place during that school christmas concert... For YEARS *as a kid* I couldn't get the image of that event out've my head...and became sensitized  associating  Epileptic fit with :stage fright:.and feeling trapped.  It wasn't long before the fear-adrenaline-fear cycle started me panicking when I felt trapped in a formal stage setting... (fear that I couldn't leave if I had to)... The problem with violin and piano recital's was that (unlike what I found later with Rock music, and certain types of acting), the sitting still, and not being able to burn off the adrenaline of acute anxiety thru movement was too much for me...Problem being onstage, was feeling noticeable under light's and in the audiences eye's, I felt too vulnerable as a kid with high level's of anxiety... The orchestral seating arrangment of the violin section  had me feeling trapped and I started eventually ruminating prior to concerts, getting sick.

In 7th grade a Jr. High music instructor had an idea....(I was going to quit "school type" music setting's all together, I never liked it much anyway),  The orchestra needed a bassist, and unlike the violinists (trapped within the front portion of a semicircle on-stage), the bass player's stood in the back closer to a wing and weren't trapped seated in what felt to be a more visible arrangement making it highly noticeable if the person would have to run out suddenly.... Anyway that worked for me...Knowing I was off partially hidden stage left allayed my feeling trapped...I felt more hidden, and closer to safety...

That year I bought a bass guitar, had already been playing organ in a small area band since around 9 years of age (Vox and Farfisa organ in those days)...Yet outdoor less formal venues never affected me as much as the indoor stage setting's where what isn't obstructed by stage lighting can leave the untrained performer staring into a large open area...seeing alot of heads... Acting was always tough, so I tried to get the less conservative roles that had more movement...

A few years later, I felt quite relaxed in Rock bands because I just felt them to be less formal, especially with larger amps, Altec VOT bins, more movement, louder volume, and less pensive audiences, of course there was also more of a feeling of "control" and power, yet you could move, even duck behind an amp and if your patch chord was long enough, no telling where you might end up  LOL .....  All was fine until around 1974 when a band I was with opened for EW&F up at SPAC (Saratoga performing Art's Center). Something about that layout freaked me out.... (also the Philadelphia Spectrum) scared the #&$( out've me.... Yet still nowhere near the anxiety level's I felt trapped playing orchstral or classical music as a youngster who felt he had no control for the duration of a concert....and was being stared at.... For some reason outdoor venues (as I stated) regardless of how vast never bothered me THAT much... Yet there is always some anticipatory anxiety..

Turned out I loved playing dance settings, outdoor concert's, and got used to normal amount's of stage fright even playing in a colliseum setting..... Yet a book report standing in front of a class of 30...forget it.... or even sitting in a church setting in the middle of a crowd...NOPE.... Sure this stuff get's quirky.... "Why do certain setting's bother people while other's don't?"...Tough to always know these things...Yet it's about feeling in or out've control of a situation...Fear of choking up, etc.  For some reason as a contemporary musician, I felt confident in my ability... I would NEVER be able to play a classical orchestral setting again, nor would I solo on piano in front of thousand's of people, unless there was a vocalist to buffer things... Strange how these thing's work, and feel...

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

This anxiety has affected me for most of my life, and I went and made it worse by drinking coffee for the last 25 years! Now I'm to the point where I can't drink caffeine at all, it gives me panic attacks after so long! I'm still paying an ER bill from when I had my first one ever a couple years ago. Maybe stagefright caused it and the caffeine compounded it, but nevertheless, my days of being wired on caffeine are over.
I remember in Junior HS I was entered into a spelling bee, I had stagefright so bad, I bombed out on an ordinary word, an easy word!! Talk about embarrassing!! As if I didn't already feel humiliated up on a stage in front of what looked like hundreds of people to me at the time, but to hear them laughing when I bombed? SHEESH....  :newlol:
What's really weird is that I also do karaoke to try and overcome these little inadequacies, but it never really goes away. Well, after a few beers it gets tolerable.
But still, I love karaoke so much, I'm willing to risk another panic attack if I need to. Atleast next time I'll know what's wrong and I won't have to pay a $2500 ER bill.  :shock:

Very Important..  Pay close attention to your breathing.. Learn how to regulate that so you don't hyperventilate.. At one point for situations I felt would become insurmountable I got prescriptions for both Valium and Inderal [In extreme cases adrenergic blocking agents (beta blockers) are used for certain people during public speaking situations where anxiety is prevalent].. They can help... Yet naturally for Karaoke I wouldn't go to that extreme   Also eat,  make sure you aren't hypoglycemic...I'd imagine given your vocation, there's a large caffeine intake. Panic is the (autonomic) physiological culmination of anxiety for some..Not all..some don't reach the panic point easily at all....Once you spiral to that point, (assuming you are predisposed) there's not much you can do except let it run it's course... In laymen's terms... IT REALLY SUCKS when you get that flooded..

and yes,  to those who aren't familiar with panic episodes.. You think you are going to die..


Perry,  I self-medicated with alcohol, and street drugs for ages... If avoidable DON'T go there.... One or two beers does help.. for me it turned anxiety into excitement.. Yet be careful with that stuff.... I know firsthand what can happen

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

PCornell, so sorry to hear about your stage fright.  Caffeine will definitely make it worse. I know several people who have given up caffeine, including my husband. It just made him kind of paranoid because he drank so much of it.  It still gives him jitters if he has any (like trace amounts).  I think some people are more affected than others. I can drink Diet Coke all day but one Starbucks with half a shot of espresso is about all I can handle (any more and I bounce off the walls).

I used to have really bad stage fright, too. I still get very nervous.  Drinking a few certainly does help.  A little nervousness is ok because it's like excitement. You don't want to be falling down up there!  But if it is enough to bother you then you might want to have a couple more drinks. You might even want to talk to your doctor about something like Xanax or Paxil.

I found that just going to karaoke a lot has helped considerably in getting over stage fright. My hands would shake and get sweaty, my legs shake, I'd have trouble breathing, etc.  I used to think I HAD to drink before I got up there, but then one day I didn't because we were in a place that didn't sell drinks (it was a karaoke shoe store, believe it or not), and I really wanted to sing, so I did.  So then on I knew I could sing without drinking.  However, drinking does make me relax more and have more fun while I'm up there.  I have given up a lot on drinking (due to allergies and blood sugar problems) and so nowadays I usually have to sing without drinking much.

Good luck to you!

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~Suzanne Lanoue~

Suzanne,  For those of us that've made music and performance a more serious aspect of our lives I'd agree.  Yet for the non-musician to just go out on :fun night out: and subject themselves to what you are discussing I feel is going abit overboard.. Getting on a stage isn't for all, and life can procede fine without many subjecting themselves to such a normal anxiety invoking ordeal.  My thought's are that depending on the individual's goal, and objectives....meds might or might not be something one should use as a coping mech






Regarding just a fun Karaoke night out:

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a benzodiazepine tranq such as Xanax, valium, Ativan etc... Or an SSRI such as Paxil for "Karaoke fun night out" type Stage fright... Especially the SSRI that isn't generally for PRN use. If a person *IS* a performer, or has a job that requires public appearances...that's one thing, yet singing in a bar onstage for the fun night out can be avoided, unless a person REALLY see's a reason to transcend such a phobia,  stage fright is such a normal phobia, I wouldn't be popping pill's medicating myself to do something that I can avoid on "the fun night out"

Here's a preferable option,  gradual, or systematic desensitization... Go on the SLOW nights..  Weekday, or sunday perhaps.....get used to an almost empty audience..... build up slowly.... Many venues have entertainment even on what ends up being the quiet nights.... Get up when there is NOONE but a few guys at the bar watching the ball game...etc... Try to condition yourself to a larger audience behaviourally.... 

My own feelings are that if meds can be avoided,  they always should be.. especially meds with quite an addicting potential such as the benzo's that people so commonly end up abusing.  I tried everything prior to taking a pill, I tried working out, walking LONG distances, exhausting myself.....When my physiology was such that NOTHING seemed to subdue the acute feelings, I than resorted to the tranqs.... Yet the performing art's were a very important part of my life.... Had this been just a "guy's night out",  and there was no larger objective that I was trying to prepare myself for by getting on-stage,  I'd not bother assuming it's that uncomfortable...Really no need IMHO.

If a person's so sensitized that going shopping and standing in line at checkout brings upon acute anxiety, or panic  (Agoraphobic aspects), Sure, that's something we must do in the course of our lives....Meds would be in order much of the time...

Yet singing karaoke as part of just a fun night out, quite a difference IMHO

JMO  (of course)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

If a person's so sensitized that going shopping and standing in line at checkout brings upon acute anxiety, or panic  (Agoraphobic aspects), Sure, that's something we must do in the course of our lives....Meds would be in order much of the time...

Oooooh, this has happened to me before, a couple years before the full blown anxiety attack. I think this whole thing can be attributed to the coffee intake I was talking about. Wifey and I would drink a few pots a day as beverage of choice....it's a wonder I don't have kidney stones already, I hear that's an eventual condition of coffee or caffeine overindulgence.
Anyway, I'd be standing in a crowded store line or whatever and every second started to feel like an eternity, get short of breath, start trembling, and almost freak out to where I had to drop my stuff and leave.
I think they call this social anxiety disorder.
But I can say now that I have it pretty much under control...as long as I don't use caffeine at all. I use to tremble and sweat profusely throughout the day at work when I had an inside job for about 12 years prior to being a commercial driver. And at every break time, I'd go for the coffee machine.
Had I known that this was a contributing factor (coffee), I would've given it up ages ago and saved myself alot of the self-consciousness associated with the pit-stained T-shirts and just the general feeling of being gawked at constantly or the paranoid delusions of being privately ridiculed.

Sure I get nervous occasionally in normal situations like stagefright, but it's not nearly like anything before. The time I mentioned that I almost passed out holding the mic, I was still consuming alot of caffeine. This was the incident that I think worried me into the full-on anxiety attack. There were smaller, less intense feelings at first, but, it was enough for me to realize that this wasn't normal. One night driving my rig, I thought I was having a heart attack, but I shortly overcame the feeling. Then later, on Memorial Day weekend 2004, a freakin' tornado blew through our neighborhood here and I thought our house was about to lift off!! And guess what I was doing at the time? Huddled in a center hallway with my family with a freakin' cup of coffee in one hand! We made it through with minimal damage, but the rest of the neighborhood was devastated. Looked like a war zone. Huge, mature trees snapped in half like toothpicks, roofless houses, terrible.
A few weeks after this is when I had to make the trip to the ER thinking I was dying.
It could all be related somewhat....trauma, caffeine, weak nerves anyway, etc...

Thanks for your advice Steve and Suzanne, I think I'll be okay.  :wink:

I just found out today that my 13 year old daughter's schoolmate's father just committed suicide possibly due to being prescribed anti-depressants allegedly. Wow, what a trip! No meds for me thank you very much.  :(

That is the very reason I quit doing the state fiddling contests. I actually did okay in them, came in 3rd place once....... but I would literally be throwing up before I had to get on stage. Heart would pound, hands would be shaky......... I just felt better once I opted out. Now, playing "just for fun" at fiddling events is a whole other story, I can play & sing onstage ad be fine. It's just when I know I'm going to be "judged" that I can't do it. I guess maybe self confidence plays a roll in that. I'm pretty comfie (mostly....kinda) where I karaoke now. I get loosened up after a song or two. But, if I ever go to a new place (like when I went to SwingCatKurts venue) I'm a big bag of nerves again. Go figure, I don't think it will ever change for me, though it has gotten better somewhat. So who knows??

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Charmin, sounds like we have a condition I refer to as perfectionitis.
But it's okay. I feel like it means a person sets higher standards for themselves and we feel like we have to live up to those standards at all times, or someone is going to notice otherwise and throw a wrench in our spokes.
But it certainly can be frustrating and scary at times.

I like your sig....maybe I'll concentrate on doing just that from now on.  :wink:

first i'm not sure if anyone answered your question of what karaoke means.
it is a japanese word meaning empty (Kara in japanese) orchestra which is shortened to oke adn yes it is very popular in japan.  as for the the original thread topic.  i miss karaoke when i am away for any length of time say three or four weeks, but it get's to be more of a headache than fun on a weekly basis.  that is to say running a show.  my wife i think is the one who is truly addicted.  no matter where we go now, on vacation, to see relatives in another town, whatever.  she always tries to find a good karaoke place to visit.  I've created a monster!  it is....ALIVE!!!!!!!

This is VERY common... I hate being judged !  Kill's the fun IMHO....  It's a tense situation when we know we are expected to perform at our absolute best ability.. Who want's to choke in that formal a setting ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Karaoke has changed my life.  It has made me a more outgoingtalkative person.  Not afraid to speak in public anymore that's for sure (no, I am not a mic hog).  10 years ago I had to be smashed before I would get on stage and I would shake so bad everyone could see me (some thought I was having convulsions).  I survived that and all the hangovers that went along with it.  i then KJ'd for a couple of years and then gave that up just to be a singer and work a day job.  

I even met my husband in a karaoke bar, he was the KJ.  We do some volunteer KJ jobs for charity events here and there, otherwise we just remain singers at this point.

I can't imagine not singing at this point in my life... I think I'll be 80 and still trying to belt out Total eclipse of the heart!!!!

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Thanks for that info man, I didn't have a clue.
And I know who my creator was/is, and my wife is PO'd!! She's not into the bar scene, and doesn't really support me on this.  :(

Karaoke has been a big confidence booster for me.  And yes, I probably am an addict.  But if karaoke disappeared from the face of the earth, I'd still sing, there just wouldn't be much of an audience  :D

I have several friends that I wouldn't have met if not for my karaoke habit...that, I wouldn't change for the world!

I heard a "daffynition" (as opposed to definition) for karaoke a while back...

It's what you call pallbearers in Tulsa  LOL

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[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

That's a good one, I've never heard that. My dad is an Okie, so I'll have to pass that on to him. He's always trying to get me to set aside the karaoke and play my guitar & fiddle more, so he'll get a good chuckle outta that.  

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥